Naming an Internet supported business or start-up can be a daunting task. Do you follow the zany likes of Google and Yahoo, or do you go the solon exact route of Hotels.com and Cars.com? Do you need to hit the exact matching field name as your brick-and-mortar business? And just how important is the .com vs. the .net? With so some choices to make and directions to go, let’s start with the basics.
1. Decide if you are building a business or a brand.
I mention this since some online entrepreneurs are focused on short-term goals. They poverty to get their place up fast, get ranked high and start making money. This all sounds good but it leaves a business vulnerable in a number of ways. Short term thinking commonly leads to exact names that will (supposedly) rank well with the see engines. In addition, literal/functional names are thought to better inform visitors about what products and services are provided.
While descriptive names do convey a significance of what you do, they start short in creating an identity, a significance of how you do what you do. So you end up in a sea of sound-alike companies. LendingTree.com (a metaphor) is much solon memorable than e-loan.com, loansfast.com or loan-place.com. Amazon.com (another metaphor) brings richer imagery to mind than BooksAMillion.com. Unless you own a primary field name with a lot of natural type-in traffic, descriptive names commonly start flat in the long run. You may make a decent living, but it would be difficult to grow a long lasting company called MensDressShoes.com. It would ever good generic and descriptive and would rely hard on the ever-changing algorithms of the see engines. Most descriptive names rely on web surfers typing the see term into the web come box as a .com, hoping to find a relevant company. But what if this changes and consumers turn solon and solon to using see engines? What if the see engines change their valuation of having keywords in the field name? You hit then built a company that relies on the unpredictable nature of Internet see engines to make you profitable.
Having said all that, even if you wanted a generic short word, it’s probably now beyond most businesses’ price range. Diamonds.com recently sold for 7.5 million dollars. Best advice — build a brand name and then point generic/descriptive names to the main website address.
2. Come up with a naming strategy.
Go to a directory such as Yahoo.com or dmoz.org and look up competitors in your field. Examine the most ordinary naming methods they use (i.e. proper names, key attributes, metaphors, etc.). If you discover your industry hard utilizes one modify of naming, refrain it and use another. If half of the companies are using the evocative theme of discovery (i.e. Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari, etc.), then try something different such as an analogy (i.e. Firefox). Map out a itemize of your competitors’ names and see how your names compare against them. Consider such naming techniques as:
Focusing on a key attribute (Priceline.com)
Focusing on a key attribute (Priceline.com)
Adding a ending (Travelocity.com)
Creating an invented name (Expedia.com)
Utilizing an evocative word (Orbitz.com)
Mixing words in new combinations (HotWire.com)
The solon strategies you employ, the solon naming options you will hit at your disposal. Be careful of misspelled names since they will create one solon obstacle when it comes to finding your field name. Some companies can manage this because they hit large budgets (i.e. Cingular.com); but as much as possible, focus on names that can be clearly stated, understood and spelled.
3. see to see if the names on your itemize are available.
A great locate to start is DomainTools.com. They will not only allow you to look up a field name to see if it’s available, but they also hit a unification for field suggestions when the desired field in not available. patch these suggestions are not ever the most creative, they may spark some additional ideas. Plus they show related names that are for sale or at auction on other sites. Another good place is BuyDomains.com. Unlike DomainTools.com, which simply lists whether domains are available or not, BuyDomains actually owns its own
inventory of over 675,000 names. They will not be available for the $6.95 that GoDaddy.com would charge for an unregistered name, but they do hit a good supply of names for between $2,000 to $4,000. Considering the importance of a good field name, this is relatively inexpensive. In addition to BuyDomains.com, there are sites such as Afternic.com and Sedo.com that also offer a wide selection of field names, some of which are searchable by category.
You can also broaden your opportunities by adding a good prefix or suffix.
Avoid the trite “online” or “cyber” endings. In the case of my naming company, I added the intensifier “Pure to the light bulb filament “Tungsten” to modify the field name PureTungsten.com. Other prefixes and suffixes include “My,” “Go,” “Now,” and “USA.”
4. If you can’t get the .com, then move on.
Starting a new business has enough challenges already. So why add to it by play with the .net version of your name? I’ve had a number of naming clients come to me with this issue. What they thought would be no big deal turned out to be very painful. Consumers default to the .com address; and without it, you will be constantly reminding customers to use the .net or .info or .us extension. To further compound the issue, some important and sensitive emails will end up going to the .com address. Imagine if a competitive company then buys the .com? You would now hit a sticky situation. refrain it by getting the .com first and foremost.
This is also true of the infamous hyphen. Most people will identify a name without the hyphen. So unless you poverty to constantly explain it, don’t rely on customers to assume your name has a hyphen. If you hit a number in your name, try to get both the spelled out number and the actual number. If you must chose one over the other, go with the spelled out name since names generally contain letters vs. numbers (i.e. CapitalOne.com).
5. Be sure to register all the doable typos and misspellings.
Think of all the doable ways your new name could be misspelled (hopefully none if you’ve done your work!). Then register these names. This will prevent field squatters and unification farms from selling your traffic to your competitors. Since consumers default to the .com name, it’s solon important that you get ordinary misspellings than it is to get the .net.
As with any name, you would be wise to check the http://www.uspto.gov database to see if there are any companies in your goods and services collection utilizing the same or similar name. If that looks clear, you will still need to file a stylemark application, which you can do online, or lease a good trademark
attorney.
This completes your crash instruction on naming an Internet supported business. If the task becomes overwhelming, you can lease a naming firm; but be embattled to pay $7,500 to $75,000 to get a good name, tag line, matching field name and artwork. If you follow the above guidelines, you should be able to keep yourself from making any major missteps and be on your way to online success. And in both the short run and long run, that’s the name of the game!
